Popular Culture Review Vol. 14, No. 1, February 2003 | Page 29

The Chinese Architect in Shenzhen

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details”. With speed the main factor in architectural design, the architect assumes
the role of a chef who cooks from prepared recipes, or pattern books, often with
predetermined tips on techniques for both more efficient design and for faster con
struction methods. Prepared by composing elements, languages, styles, forms, and
standard details, these recipes are pattern books from which customers may order
a building design. Architectural recipes have become indispensable references to
every professional architect and student. Existing projects or previous designs are
recycled with minimum alterations. Another source for recipes are competitions.
Starting in the early 1980’s annual national competitions have been held specifi
cally to find the most efficient plans and sections for slab, low-rise, high-rise, and
single-family housing. National standards have been established and are revised
carefully. “Housing design research” becomes a quasi-scientific study of the ulti
mate floor-to-floor height, the ideal room dimension and proportion, and the best
design configurations for different housing typologies and orientations. Chinese
architects understand that China’s limited resources must serve an immense and
growing population. Government advocating of the use of winning entries from
housing competitions, for example, has altered the traditional concept of design
itself in China. Each site and program is no longer considered a unique issue;
rather, housing design becomes a process of the application of formulas, and the
architect’s role is reduced to revising and recycling the most efficient designs found
in their recipe books.
This concept can be explained by a Chinese expression: “one made the clothes
first before finding the customer, and made the clothes before taking measure
ments”. Our inhibiting Western notion of “architects-as-thoughtful-artists” is largely
absent as, historically, artisans and craftsmen were solely responsible for the pro
duction of buildings in China, and they simply did and do not consider architec
ture as one of the arts. As one of my students proudly exclaime